A TEACHER jailed for firing an air pistol during a confrontation with a gang she claimed had vandalised her home is challenging her conviction today.

Special needs teacher Linda Walker, 48, fired at the pavement during a stand-off with a group she described as a gang of "yobs" outside her home last August.

She told police she had received nuisance phone calls abusing her family, her garden shed had been broken into, and a car and her garden had been vandalised.

Walker, from Urmston, Greater Manchester, was found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear and violence. She was jailed for six months at Manchester Crown Court on March 29 but appealed.

Behaviour

Mother-of-two Walker says her appeal is based on new evidence from a milkman, proving that at least one boy was lying when he said he had never been on her property, and that what she told police about the boys' behaviour was true.

During the trial, it emerged that two members of the group involved in the confrontation with her had criminal records.

At a recent failed High Court bail application, Farrhat Arshad, Walker's counsel, told Mr Justice Royce it would be argued at the appeal that, although firearms offences usually attracted a prison term, she should never have been jailed - because the sentence was "wrong in principle" in the unusual circumstances of her case.

A probation report had recommended a community rehabilitation order with a "think first" condition.

Her conviction challenge is being heard by three Appeal judges in London.